(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The man who allegedly attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course last month was able to stalk the former president via a flight tracker app on his phone, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
The new detail about Ryan Routh’s alleged assassination plot was tucked in the middle of an NYT article about how Trump is relying on federal agencies for his protection amidst purported threats from Iran.
“Mr. Routh used a flight tracker app on his phone to try to keep abreast of Mr. Trump’s whereabouts, and the evidence collected to date suggests Mr. Routh was more or less stalking the former president,” NYT reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.
The New York Times has this habit of tucking newsworthy details inside otherwise rambling, empty stories that rehash old info.
Today, for instance, NYT published this interesting fact in like the 20th paragraph of a story that hadn't revealed anything new.
Ryan Routh allegedly… pic.twitter.com/EoUwAdfZPB— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 15, 2024
Cellphone records cited by the Justice Department indicate Routh traveled to West Palm Beach from Greensboro in mid-August, and that he was near Trump’s golf club and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence “on multiple days and times” between August 18 and the day of the apparent attempted assassination.
He was arrested on Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man’s face, and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at him. The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county.
The Secret Service has said Routh did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of sight.
The Justice Department also said that authorities who searched his car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
They also found a list with dates in August, September and October and venues where Trump had appeared or was scheduled to, according to prosecutors. A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.
The detention memo also cites a book authored by Routh last year in which he lambasted Trump’s approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In the book, he wrote that Iran was “free to assassinate Trump”—and him—for having left the nuclear deal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
